At the college level he’s demonstrated that he’s at least as good a shooter as Duncan. Duncan didn’t develop the ability to shoot well off screens until he went to Miami. Livers is already doing that at the international line. I don’t think the NBA line will be a problem for him.
I guess maybe the better question is where Poole was ranked at this time last year.
Duncan’s literally been the best shooter in the NBA this year and is breaking shooting records left and right. They both shot 41% from three in college, but Duncan slumped for much of his senior year and shot 45% as a sophomore which is what he’s shooting in the NBA this season. Livers’ shot will have to go to another level to do that in the league, it’s possible, but I’m not expecting it and I don’t think NBA scouts are either.
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How often is Isaiah running off screens? A couple times maybe? I also could be wrong about this but it seems like most all of his 3s are near the line, where as Duncan was often shooting way outside the line.
Duncan for his career averaged about 5 3PA per game at 41.6% which is about what Isaiah is doing just this season. That included a 12 game slump that hurt his average significantly. Duncan was the superior shooter in college for sure.
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Vecenie’s mock draft in March had Poole going 35th overall. Pretty spot on.
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I think many overrate the level of athlete and defender Livers. He always struggled to guard quicker guys and that’s what he’s going see in the nba. In the nba he’s just a shooter. Those guys are valuable and nba teams say they want them but when it comes down to actually spending draft capital on them they almost never do it. Duncan Robinson supposedly had epic shooting workouts and no one still even spent a late second on him. Livers is also going struggle to get drafted imo. I will also say one of the most important skills of coaches in today’s cbb environment is rentention recruiting. Losing livers would be a big disappointment because he’s not viewed as near the level of prospect some of the “surprise” nba attrition(Morris, Wilson, Poole, iggy) we’ve recently had.
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Livers seems like a fringe NBA prospect right now. A decade ago he’d assuredly be back for his senior year, but fringe NBA guys declare for the draft all the time now it seems. Michigan would benefit tremendously to have him back–and maybe a healthy year gets him on draft boards in a real way–but I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go. Not quite 50-50, but maybe 70-30 he comes back.
Hard disagree as far as leaving for pros goes. If a guy wants to play professional basketball then so be it. If the want to stay then so be it. But I don’t want Juwan being an Izzo, and I highly doubt he will be. The important retention recruiting will be with transfers when the new rule comes in place.
Livers is certainly a better prospect than Morris who was never in a million years going to be drafted.But I don’t want Juwan being an Izzo, and I highly doubt he will be.
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All it takes is a little bit of a run (and a few made 3s) in the tourney and suddenly everyone’s draft stock looks better (and vice versa).
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I mean, Juwan left after three years. Different eras (and different level of player in this case) but his perspective should be very helpful for these guys. I don’t see him pulling an Izzo.
Obviously we don’t have the ability to do this but I think all this discussion should just be split into the 2021 roster speculation discussion thread for cohesion sake.
Livers is not near the prospect or player Morris was his sophomore year. I think some forget just how good and valuable Morris was that year. He literally carried a team with pretty terrible talent to an NCAA bid and was a made shot from beating 1 seed duke team full of nba talent in the round of 32. IMO he’s the most under appreciated great player of the beilein era by far.
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Wait didn’t Darius Morris get drafted by the Lakers? Early second round I believe.
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Yes and he was mocked in the first round in quite few mock drafts. After the season he was seen as a fringe first rd guy.
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Ahh I totally had a brain fart about Darius then. Was thinking he went undrafted. My bad.
I have such fond memories of that Morris/Novak/Hardaway team. That big ten season and little run in the tourney was such an important spark for the impending 10 years of Beilein fun. It was the first time in so long that there was a buzz about basketball instead of football.
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I still occasionally think about what would have happened had Morris kicked to the open Novak on the wing at the end of that Duke game. Not blaming Morris or anything, but an open Novak look from 3 for the win would have been a bit of a storybook finish.
By that standard, half of the B10 is. Duncan is an anomaly and not an appropriate comparable.
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41st overall
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